Help, I have exercised and I can’t move my arms.  Remember that commercial – Help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.

I have been swimming for the last 2 days.  I did find a swimming suit that fit – barely.  I went also went to the swimming store and purchased a kickboard, goggles, training fins, hand paddles and a pull buoy.  I know it seems like a lot of equipment just to get in the pool and splash around, but it is all stuff I need to train, and get my muscles back in shape.

The first day I got in the pool, it felt like being back home.  As I have said, I love the water.  Must be the Australian in me.  I swam my first 2 laps of Freestyle and really thought I was going to die.  My heart felt like it was going to explode out of my chest and I couldn’t catch my breath.  In an effort to keep my heart rate up I turned around and did 2 lengths of breaststroke.  That wasn’t so bad, but my stroke felt clunky and uncoordinated.  I could hear my old swim coach in the back of my mind shouting, “Kick, stroke, glide, don’t put your head all the way in the water…and so on.”

I then got out my kickboard and fins, and kicked for 4 lengths.  Oh, that was painful.  And I could feel every ounce of fat jiggle with each kick.  Then to the paddles and the pull buoy.  2 lengths of Freestyle, 2 lengths of backstroke.  I could feel muscles contracting that hadn’t been used in years.  And finally, I finished it off with 4 lengths of a slow stroke, Breaststroke, Backstroke, Freestyle and a length of Sidestroke.

All of that took me about 40 minutes to do.  And honestly, I felt rejuvenated.  I went home, fed the dogs, cooked dinner for my family, ate and collapsed into bed.  I slept like a baby.

I did the same thing yesterday, but things felt easier, not so strained.  I finished in under 30 minutes.  My strokes felt smoother, I felt stronger, I felt like I was going faster.  A lady in the pool asked me how long I had been swimming for, I said just for two days, and she said “Oh you are such a good swimmer.”  I thanked her and said I was completely out of shape, but that would change.  She said, “I can’t wait to see how fast you swim when you are in shape.”  We laughed.

I went home, fed the dogs, cooked dinner, folded laundry, and collapsed into bed.

I woke up this morning, and I can feel the muscles in my shoulders and in my arms.  This is good.  It is a good pain.  I am bummed I can’t go swimming tonight.  I am on call and I just don’t see how I can make that work.  Perhaps I will walk the dogs.  They will probably walk me.

ADDENDUM:

I wrote this post several weeks ago.  I thought I should give this all a trial before I started blogging about it, just in case I said to hell with it, I can live with being fat.  Well, I haven’t given up, I am plodding along (or maybe it is sloshing along).  Yesterday, I completed 36 lengths (900 yards),  just over half a mile.  My goal is a mile, for each day that I exercise, so that is 70.4 laps.

I definitely feel stronger, I can see the biceps in my arms.  Someone at work told me I looked thinner, and they didn’t even know I had been exercising.  So, that is very exciting.  They said I looked shorter too – which is weird, why would I be shrinking with exercise.  I have been 5’ 9” forever, I don’t want to be any shorter.

Photo credit – pinterest.com